Third quarter saw prices rise by 4.5% according to the INE

The INE (Spain’s National Statistics Institute) has released its data for the third quarter and, like the Ministry of Public Works and Registrars, their results for property price growth are very positive.

Prices

The well-respected statistics agency registered a 4.5% increase in the price of Spanish property which is the highest increase since 2007 according to their data. The result sits between the 1.4% rise which was reported by the Ministry of Public Works and the increase of 6.6% recorded by the Registrars.

It means that property prices have risen for six consecutive quarters. Both new-build and resale property recorded good results for the quarter with new-build housing seeing a price increase of 4.3% while resale property prices rose by 4.5%.

Prices: regional results

Spain’s tourist regions all posted positive results for property price evolution. The Balearic Islands registered the largest increase at 8.4% followed by Catalonia at 6.1%, the Canary Islands and Andalucia both at 4.4% and Valencia and Murcia recording steadier rises at 2.1% and 1.8% respectively.

Sales

The good news was not just limited to prices however as the quarter also saw growth of 16.3% in the number of Spanish property sales (Ministry of Public Work’s data), the best quarterly result since 2009 with a total of 92,528 properties sold between July and September.

Purchases by foreigners

The Ministry put the number of purchases made by foreign residents in Q3 at 15,589 (16.8% of the total). Of these, 50.2% bought in either the Valencian Community: 4,591 purchases, or Andalucia: 3,232 purchases.

Other regions popular with foreign buyers were Catalonia: 2,574 purchases, the Canary Islands: 1,296 purchases, the Balearics: 1,177 purchases, Madrid: 1,101 purchases and Murcia with 723.